State of the Writer: August 2013

It’s a Monday morning and I’m sitting at home typing on my personal laptop. Not because I’ve taken the day off, but because I’ve been given it off, along with tomorrow, the day after, and every day after that. It’s an infinite-day weekend. The layoff I’ve mentioned a time or two in the blog is now finalized, and I don’t yet have anything lined up, so for the time being this is my life. Get up, help get the baby out the door, watch my life leave for work, then figure out how to fill the day with a mix of job hunting and keeping myself sane.

I’m going to try not to let this blog turn into my gripes about the situation. But there’s every chance that the nature of this blog may change over the next few weeks, in ways I can’t currently predict. It might be one of my keeping sane outposts, in which case posting will go up. I might be too busy trying to get a job, in which case postings will go down. I’m relying on you, dear readers, to give me a swift kick in the ass if I’m getting too woe-is-me in here. It’s not good for me, and no one wants to see that.

As for my writing? I feel like I need to take at least some advantage of this situation, so I’m setting myself to time goals.

Goal one: No more than one hour writing a day. I know that seems like a weird goal, but I’m the same person who once used writing a novel as a way of not packing for a move. While I could get some awesome writing done if I did nothing but write…I need something to keep paying the bills, and writing couldn’t do so in time to help.

Goal two: No less than two hours writing a week. Weekly ceiling is five hours, I’m hoping to hit at least 40% of that every week. While I don’t want writing to get in the way of my job hunt, I also don’t want to be handed some unemployment down time and not make some use of it.

This time will include first drafts, editing, outlining, anything that’s in the service of a story. In the pipeline is the first draft of a short that’s been percolating in my brain, then what I hope are final edits of a story I’ve been neglecting for far too long, and then perhaps some actual outlining of the next novel project.

Lemons and lemonade.

State of the Author’s Bees: I can see them from here, they’re looking pretty good. A hell of a lot better than they did at this point last year, at least. Wife did see one sign of a wax moth trying to get into the hive just to be fought off by the bees. Which is how it’s supposed to work.

State of the Author’s Beer: Bottled the apple ale. It’s about 6.8% alcohol by volume, so it’ll have a little kick. Finally figured out a name, too. It came from working backwards. I decided I want to call my next batch Wildberry Princess. So the apple ale landed the name Tree Trunks Apple Ale. Oh, Tree Trunks.